Driving home from Mass at 12:45 yesterday, I noticed puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) that had popped up in various yards.
 |
| I usually only notice them when they are full-sized and overly mature for eating. |
Handsome Hombre LOVES mushrooms. He would be totally geeked if he found out that he had them growing on his property. Unfortunately, both HH and Southern Belle are pinned to the wall due to work commitments.
As with all mushrooms, make sure you have a rock-solid identification and test with a small (very small) initial test and then give it 24 hours before eating any more. Remember, pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
Applesauce notes
We canned 35 more quarts yesterday so we are over our target of 52 quarts. We also had 3 orphans that we did not run through the canner. Those will be gifts to assorted families.
Tarps
While doing a causal inventory I noticed that most of our tarps have seen heavy usage and I need to replace some of them.
Do any of you have strong opinions about the most versatile size(s) for tarps? Yeah, I know the standard answer is "One that is just a little bit bigger than the one you got."
A tarp is like a girl who lives next-door and is everybody's second-most-favorite girl. She wins the Homecoming Queen voting because she is somebody everybody can agree on.
There is almost always a "better" solution for any problem than a tarp but that "better solution" is almost always much more expensive and isn't sitting on a shelf in your garage or barn.
I've acquired about dozen pieces of corrugated metal roofing in various states - some of it was free-as-in-beer. Works great for chicken coops and firewood piles! I used to use tarps for my firewood, but I've replaced and thrown away so many...
ReplyDeleteThe local metal roofing supply place has a scratch-n-dent bin, 5 bucks per piece. Great source. My firewood doesn't care what color steel keeps it dry and neither do I.
Do you do anything special to keep them from blowing away or are they attached to wooden framing?
DeleteHave not bought tarps in several years, as the cows were sold in '19, but the last few we had, to cover hay stacked outside the barn, were either 'billboard' tarps or repurposed shipping container covers. Both lasted for years, and when they inevitably developed holes/tears, we'd just cut them up into smaller pieces to cover various things. 'Billboard Tarps' & 'Billboard Vinyls' are two major suppliers.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check with one of the local billboard companies to see what they do with "old" billboard covers.. At one time, they allowed people to haul them off for slip-and-slide parties and the like.
DeleteWe have one canvas tarp that lasted about 25 years, but still in service many years after that. It was only used to cover the door of a shed. I was impressed by the longevity. All the plastic cheap tarps tear and fail after 3 to 5 years.
ReplyDeleteDepending what the use is, I would recommend canvas.
Southern NH
8x10 or smaller. They can be folded by 1 person in wind and this greatly extends their life span as they actually get put away vs left under a rock until someone (the present interlocutor) clips them with the mower. Folding along the 10 foot section let's you haul a deer with an 8 foot wide/4ish long "taco" and doing similar things with yard waste promotes piles heavy enough to be useful, but light enough to be filled and moved quickly.
ReplyDeleteCan always grab 2 of them as needed, but I leave my big tarps in the barn unless I can think of some real reason to justify them.